Coming Back Home
by Acelover
Summary: Takes place when Sam is still in San Francisco, and horse slaughter is starting to become more and more serious. Sam knows something needs to be done, but soon finds out calling and writing articles isn't enough when suddenly the Phantom along with his ba
1. Chapter 1

The air conditioning felt good where Samantha Forster sat in her small, compacted journalism class. It was so hard concentrating on her "What do you Think of Uniforms?" report when Jason Ek, the annoying kid who sat behind her, kept whispering over to his friend Mike.

"One more word out of him and that's that's," Sam muttered under her breath. "Shoot." The distraction of Jason's whispering led Sam to writer's block.

"Hey Mike I just thought of an idea," Jason said, holding in a laugh. "Tonight we should egg someone's house."

"Shut up and do what you're supposed to be doing!" Sam hissed, turning to face Jason, who's expression turned from amused to frustration.

"_You _shut up!"

"Oh you don't know how immature that sounds," Sam said, then turned back around, cleared her throat and raised her hand. A couple of annoying boys shouldn't keep her from making an A on something as easy as a uniform report.

"Okay, okay, I'll stop if you put down your arm," Jason said, tapping her raised hand.

Sam did. "You better," she warned, then turned around and went back to work.

Fifteen minutes had passed when the teacher said, "Okay, everyone drop your papers in the Inbox and then we'll discuss current events. Erica, you're up first."

"Mine is kind of long," The brunette said, walking up to the front of the class. Erica Smith, Sam's friend, was often the quiet one.

"Yesterday, in Silvane, Utah, 20 mustangs were rounded up and put into BLM corrals. Now we all know this is pretty common, but these weren't just healthy mustangs. Many were pregnant mares, and many foals died along with their mothers."

Sam gasped. When she looked around the room, everyone's mouth was open in shock.

"The number of wild horses in the world is reducing quickly, and we must do something to stop. When I did more research on this article I found that it's not just happening in Utah, but also places like Montana and Nevada. Not just those, either. Why are these people doing this? I don't know, but I don't like it."

_Nevada. _Sam thought of the beautiful, free mustangs running on the playa, and in the Calico Mountains, where her old home was. She missed her ranch and her family. Bad. And now the mustangs were in more danger than ever.

"We have to do something," Sam blurted. She almost winced at her sudden outburst until everyone smiled and agreed.

"Sam's right!" Chelsea Muton exclaimed. "What these people are doing is wrong!"

Soon everyone was talking at once.

"Class, settle down," The teacher said. "Now although I agree with all of you, we have to get on with this so we'll have time for our interviews."

Sam rolled her eyes. How could the teacher be so mean? Mustangs in danger were _way _more important than stupid little interviews.

After school was out, Sam told Aunt Sue to wait in the car as she gathered up all the people in her journalism class and met at the library.

"Okay, guys this is serious, no matter what our teacher says we really gotta _do _something!" Sam said. Erica was beside her backing her up.

"Well what can we do? We're just kids, how would anyone take us seriously?" Meg asked.

Sam paused. She thought of her and Jake, always exploring around, her riding Blackie and him riding Witch. Where she used to live people usually took her seriously, kid or not. But she kind of new what they meant.

"We just have to act mature and hope for the best," Sam said confidently, glaring at Jason.

"How should we help?" Mike asked. Jason nudged him but Mike didn't care.

Sam looked at Erica for support. She knew more about that stuff than Sam did.

"Well, first we should email the people involved telling them our opinions," Erica said. Her voice was quiet, and whenever she talked it seemed like the whole room went silent. "And maybe, just maybe we can convince Mr. Presli to let us do a special report on it, so we can get other people informed."

The room fell silent, then Meg said, "That sounds easy."

"Yeah," Everyone said. Sam and Erica exchanged happy glances. Their class was so good.

"Wait."

Sam immediately took that thought back. She forgot Jason. Of course he had to ruin _something._

"People, this is crazy, don't listen to them. Do you _really _think just because a couple of kids call and write an article about it means they'll change their minds? These are _horses. _What are they good for anyway? I don't know about you guys but I'd rather not waste my time trying to save these stupid animals. They'll all be gone eventually."

"What!" Sam shrieked. How could he even live with himself? "First of all, yes, if we do those things they just might because that's what their supposed to do. Then the people who are against them can mention all of us. Second of all, We're not wasting our time, we're doing something good. What, you don't think egging someone's house is a waste of time?" Jason recoiled at her remark. "And third of all, Horses aren't stupid!"

Just as fast as she'd started her rampage, Sam stormed out of the room and ran to Aunt Sue's car. She didn't care if she had sounded evil. Horses were more important.

"What's wrong?" Aunt sue asked as Sam slid into the front seat of the blue honda.

"Aunt Sue, the horses need help before more and more die, but Jason thinks otherwise."

"Who's Jason?"

"This real annoying kid who sits behind me in Journalism."

Aunt Sue rolled her eyes. "Well, either just forget him or try to convince him how important the situation is."

The rumbling sound of Aunt Sue's car as she started the engine roused Sam's sick feeling. Her head felt like it was swinging around from dizziness.

"I just wish he wasn't in my class." Sam said.

Aunt Sue sighed. "Sam, there's always going to be someone like Jason in your life who you wish could just vanish. You just have to fight your way through this. Think of it as an obstacle course, and Jason as one of your obstacles."

"The only obstacle," Sam said rolling her eyes. "If he wasn't here everything would be just fine. But _no. _Now the horses are in even more danger because of him."

Out of advice, Aunt Sue turned on the radio but the music did little to relax Sam. She kept re-playing in her mind what Aunt Sue had said.

_Fight my way through this._

She could handle Jason. After all, he was only one kid, just like they were all just one class. Still a little unsure, Sam sighed, knowing that proved how one kid could definitely make such a difference.


	2. Blackie?

"On the news today..."

The t.v. spoke throughout the house of Aunt Sue's San Francisco apartment as Sam dug through a bag of doritos and typed away at her laptop, writing an article for the school newspaper about the horse slaughter. Hopefully the whole class was doing the same thing, Sam thought, taking a bite off a chip.

Aunt Sue walked into the room wearing a big smile on her face. "I take it you're working on that article?"

"Yeah," Sam said, absentmindedly.

Aunt Sue sat down on the couch next to her. "Well, good for you."

Sam didn't respond, her attention was now totally focused on her article.

"Hey, Sam?" Aunt Sue said.

"Yeah?"

"Look at the t.v...isn't that.."

Sighing, Sam forced herself to look up from the laptop.

To Sam it looked somewhat familiar, showing a place in the country. Suddenly a band of mustangs ran across the screen. It took a while for Sam to realize it was familiar because she had been there before.

"Oh my god isn't that Nevada?" Sam exclaimed, standing up. "That looks like the playa!"

But Sam's smile faded when suddenly it showed a big helicopter bobbing up from behind, trailing them.

The newsperson spoke, "The people in that helicopter are chasing the mustangs to capture them and put them in corrals for horse slaughter or adoption. And it's foaling season, so a lot of the mares are pregnant and will probably die along with their foals. Fortunately though, this was earlier today and the mustangs were just too tricky and fast to be caught. But are these Nevada mustangs off the hook? Or will the chasers be just too mesmerized by the beautiful grey stallion to ever stop until they've finally succeeded?"

Sam gasped. "No!" Those were the same mustangs she had seen when she lived there, although probably some were different. The grey one probably was too because she knew the legend of the Phantom Stallion, and when her dad called her a few months ago he said that he was new and the old one died.

"Sam, everything is going to be fine."

"Fine?" Sam snapped, close to tears. "Didn't you hear what she said? They probably aren't even done yet! They'll probably keep going until they've finally captured them all. Everyone who sees the Phantom Stallion is immediately in love!"

Aunt Sue shook her head, trying to calm her niece down. "Don't worry. But just in case, maybe you should call your friends and ask if they've already called their representative and written an article. Tell them what you saw just now on the news."

"Good idea." Sam walked back to the couch, grabbed the phone and dialed.

After she'd called everyone who had answered, which was about 3/4 of the class, and learned that each one of them had done their jobs and were appalled at the news, Sam closed her eyes and thought.

There had to be something else she could do. Obviously writing articles and calling wasn't enough.

Her eyes immediately shot back open when they replayed it again on the news.

Even though it wasn't, when the Phantom ran across the screen leading his herd to safety, it seemed like it was being played in slow motion. Sam shivered. The new Phantom seemed strangely familiar, and when he whinnied in despair, Sam could've sworn it sounded just like Blackie. But that was very improbable. Although..didn't black foals turn white around the age of five? And while Sam had spent a year and a half in San Francisco, he had been running free across the range...

No, Sam thought, shaking her head. It was unlikely. But still...

Just then the phone rang, interrupting her thoughts. Sam groaned and answered.

"Hello?"

"Hey."

Sam hardly recognized the deep voice on the other end.

"Who's this?"

There was a hesitation. "Jake. Remember me?"

"Oh my gosh!" Sam squeaked, accidentally dropping the phone on the wooden floor, ending with a loud bang.

Sam barely noticed. Her heart was beating too fast. She just sat there, staring at the phone, her mouth open in shock. It was Jake. Jake Ely. It was actually _Jake Ely. _

Quickly, Sam counted in her mind how long it had been since they had seen each other. Okay, a year and a half, but it seemed way, way longer than that. And his voice was deeper. He was what, sixteen now?

Embarrassment swept over her as she bent down to pick up the phone. She wondered if he had hung up. _Probably, _she thought.

"Um..hello?" Sam managed.

"What was that about?"

"Um, oh, sorry..I've just been really clumsy lately."

"Oh."

Was there a reason to why he called? Because the Jake she knew never said anything unless he really had to. Or unless he wanted to pick on her.

Squinting her eyes, Sam suddenly felt angry and changed the tone of her voice.

"So why'd you call?"

"'Cause the horse slaughter."

He knew too?

"I see you were watching the news too."

"Yeah, but Sam..I have a feeling these mustangs aren't gonna get away. especially 'cause of the Phantom."

Sam's eyes widened. "Speaking of the Phantom, could you maybe tell me more about him?" She asked casually.

"You mean the legend or the actual horse?"

"The horse," Sam said.

Jake sighed. "Well, He's new, about five years old, short, yet really fast, and is really good."

"But that's what all of them are like!" Sam whined.

"Yeah...," Jake said.

Sam hesitated. "Well..I just wanted to know, that's all. I really miss Nevada. San Francisco kind of stinks."

Jake gave a short laugh. "Well brat, when are ya gonna come back out here?"

"The end of this year," Sam said, resentfully.

"Honest? 'Cause I really doubt the mustangs will still be around by then."

Panic rushed through Sam. He had been thinking the same thing she had. "Well I would come sooner..but..do you think they'll let me?"

"C'mon, Sam, you've stayed there for a year and a half. The injury has probably worn off by now."

"I know," Sam said. "Okay, I'll try to convince Aunt Sue. Have you talked to my dad yet?"

"No. I'm leavin' that up to you too."

Sam groaned. "Fine. Bye."

"Bye brat."

Rolling her eyes at his nickname for her, Sam hung up.

Right now her mind was mixed up with different thoughts but she knew she had to do _something_. Jake was right. She had to go home and save the mustangs and, possibly, her beloved Blackie, before they all became meat.


End file.
